Wall Street Needs More Time For Change

A few months after hailing the New York Stock Exchange’s decision to adopt dollars-and-cents share prices, top securities regulators have told Congress that Wall Street may not be ready in time.

Arthur Levitt Jr., chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Frank Zarb, head of the National Association of Securities Dealers, asked lawmakers last week to approve a delay in the planned switch by the nation’s stock exchanges to decimal prices from the 200-year-old use of fractions.

Levitt and Zarb told some members of the House Commerce Committee that the switch would interfere with the securities industry’s efforts to deal with year 2000 computer problems.

“There are issues to consider, such as year 2000. It’s not just something you turn a switch on for,” Reid Walker, a spokesman for Zarb, said Monday.